Enrique Penn

Enrique Penn is an energetic, multi-faceted dancer and choreographer with concentration in urban, hip hop, & lyrical dance, based out of Phoenix, Arizona originally, from Seattle, WA. He began his dance journey at the age of three when he took his first Jazz dance class. In his early years, he had some studio training, however, he was mostly self taught until he went to college, where he studied Dance and Film. Although Enrique started dancing very early on, he didn't really fall in love with the art of dancing until he was about 8 years old, when he saw Michael Jackson do the Moonwalk he had the realization he could physically do things most people couldn't. In 2014, He posted his first YouTube video, which was a tribute video after the passing of his grandfather. Creating YouTube videos was that stepping stone for Enrique, as he posted every other week trying to showcase his art and love for dance. He wanted to do more so as college was around he took A Acting class and enjoyed every second of that. Enrique was able to find something else that he enjoyed doing besides dance. "Being in someone else's shoes, character wise is such a great feeling" - Enrique. The name RicoTheHero (Enrique's) nickname came about when Enrique was performing for a group called Be Kind, where they would do performances for elementary and middle school kids. At the end of the sets, they would usually grab a kid out of the crowd to come on stage and dance with them. Enrique saw one young boy in particular and brought him up on stage. The boy was really shy at first and something about his energy reminded Enrique of his younger self. He encouraged the boy to dance on stage and after the boy came back to Enrique and said with teary eyes, "No one ever talks to me, but you brought me on stage today, you are my hero." and interestingly enough, the boy's name was Rico also. Thus, Rico the Hero was born. "This is the reason why my motto is 'we grow together'. Even though the dance community is very competitive, I've been a part of it for so long that my motivation isn't just fame or fortune. My motivation is to inspire the next generation of dancers." "I'm not just a dancer, I'm an artist and I want people to learn that dance is freedom. With dance, you can do anything and being able to do anything is being free. In 2019, Enrique got an opportunity to be apart of the rising show "Rhythm & Flow". Choreographing for one of Arizona's biggest artist Ali Tomineek. He was in (Ep. 7 Music videos) portion of the show.